RAPE MYTHS

LINDSEY COFFEY

LEGAL DEFINITION

“The penetration of a vagina, mouth or anus with a MANS

penis”

(Rape Crisis, 2013)

WHY DID I CHOOSE

THIS TOPIC?

Time to make a change

Aim to improve the conviction rate for rape

Made me angry

INTRODUCTION

Burt (1980)

Payne, Lonsway and Fitzgerald (1999)

Are these ideas still relevant today?

HYPOTHESES

Age – younger participants will believe less than older

participants. (H1)

Gender – women will believe less rape myths than men. (H2)

HYPOTHESES

Religious belief – those who follow a religion will believe

more rape myths. (H3)

Strength of religious belief – those who have a strict religious

belief will believe more rape myths. (H4)

Parenthood – parents will believe less rape myths. (H5)

METHOD – MATERIALS

AND PROCESSES

Condensed Rape Myth Acceptance Scale

3 conditions and 20 questions

It wasn’t rape, rape is a deviant event, he didn’t mean to.

METHOD -

PARTICIPANTS

130 participants 126 participants indicated a

religious belief these included

75 female Christian

50 male Muslim

5 did not disclose Buddhist

C of E

77 parents Follower of Christ

53 non-parents

Aged from 16-79

RESULTS H1

Age – no correlation found

RESULTS H2

Gender – women were found to believe less rape myths

within category one (it wasn’t really rape).

However gender made no difference within categories two

and three

RESULTS H3

Religious Belief – was shown to have no effect on a

participants rape myth acceptance score

RESULTS H4

Strength of religious belief;

• Minimal

• Strict

• Very strict

Those with a strong religious belief believed more rape myths than

those with a minimal religious believe in category one but not in

category 2 or 3.

Major differences were however

found between the conditions

RESULTS H5

Parents were found to believe more rape myths than non-

parents in the category of rape is a deviant event.

CONCLUSIONS

What I would change next time

Future Research

Male Rape myths

Jury selection

Educate our Younger generations

Muir, Lonsway and Payne (1996)

FINAL THOUGHT

REFERENCES

Burt, M. (1980). Cultural myths and supports for rape. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 38(2), 217-230.

Payne, D., Lonsway, K., & Fitzgerald, L. (1999). Rape Myth Acceptance: Exploration of Its Structure and Its Measurements Using the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale. Journal of Research in Personality, 33, 27-68.

Muir, G., Lonsway, K., & Payne, D. (1996). Rape Myth Acceptance Among Scottish and American Students. The Journal of Social Psychology, 136(2), 261-262.

Rape Crisis, (2013). Rape Statistics. Retrieved from Rape Crisis England and Wales: http://www.rapecrisis.org.uk/

THANK YOU FOR

LISTENING

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